Pursuit of Passion Along with A Technical Qualification

It was great to see some notable personalities of students at the recent Sunway Diploma Studies graduation. Pursuing a qualification in Information Technology with intent to specialise further into the field is a welcoming move by students who are IT enthusiasts.

What is even more rewarding and remarkable is when students are able to brand themselves with unique attributes they exude, not limiting their exposure to the IT field. While there are students who prefer to stay in their comfort zones, there are those who recognise their notable strengths and actively indulge in their passionate pursuits while balancing time for their studies.

Such is the case with Shamalan Rajesvaran who did a Diploma in IT and explored his leadership prowess by being one of the founders of the Sunway Diploma Student Council and soon became the President of the Sunway College Student Council. He was also the Director of the Amnesty International Sunway club as well as committee of Toastmasters International. By enriching his experience through many leadership opportunities, Shamalan knew he could impact change.

Shamalan giving his valedictory speech

“The vision of our college and its institutional excellence has certainly played a massive role in elevating me,” he proudly asserts in his speech as the valedictorian at the Sunway Diploma Studies graduation recently. He is currently pursuing Bachelor of Information Systems (Honours) in Data Analytics in Sunway University and received The Advance and Continuing Excellence (ACE) Scholarship while still very active in external collaborations and engagements.

Student Choo Suet Yi, who also completed Diploma in IT and received an award at the recent Sunway Diploma Studies graduation for excellent results, is someone who has made the most of her college life. While as an enthusiastic learner in class, she managed to do three months of freelance work for SOTIPSY.com, Premium Platform Sdn Bhd where she transferred her classroom knowledge into valuable professional skills such as real-world collaboration, web platform development and UI design.

“In my one and a half years in Sunway College, I’ve accomplished a great deal of coursework on cutting-edge designs, trends and best practices, including Web Development and Mobile Application Design,” said Suet Yi who is also a content creator. Starting out her very first YouTube channel (Vixtrum) featuring her college she captures high-fidelity footage quality from her GoPro 8 camera which she resourcefully attained using her side revenue from freelancing and trading forex and cryptocurrency. Her first Sunway College vlog has successfully obtained 2.7k views and nearly 100 subscribers! She is currently BSc (Hons) Information Technology (Computer Networking and Security) after securing the Jeffrey Ace Scholarship 2021 – 2022, a three-year highest tuition reimbursement scholarship awarded for academic excellence in the Diploma programme.

Choo Suet Yi

Shamalan and Suet Yi were also both involved with the teams that represented Sunway College for the intervarsity Community & U competition in 2018 and 2019 respectfully. The competition was organised by Soroptimist international and Sunway College emerged champions in 2019.

Another interesting personality previously from the Diploma in IT program is Muhammad bin Zainurin who was a humble and avid student with impressive hobbies. Throughout his Diploma studies, while maintaining good academic standing, Muhammad was active outside of college with modelling and acting gigs for companies such as Uniqlo, Zalora and Chucks. He is a skilled musician who was the lead guitarist for the production of social campaign original song on a social cause for stateless youths and education rights. This song was recorded during the movement control order (MCO) from home and was featured at the ‘Statelessness and Education’ webinar in July 2021. He received the highest tier of the Jeffrey Cheah ACE Scholarship to pursue Bachelor of Software Engineering at Sunway University.

Muhammad modelling for Uniqlo

“Although there is no direct line from modeling and music to software engineering, something about it literally being under the spotlight motivated me to be more professional and responsible with any job I do,” says Muhammad.

It is indeed commendable that the students above have demonstrated the right positive pursuits, outstanding academic performance and resilience especially in facing uncertainties that the pandemic had brought upon us. Their goal-oriented mind-set and ability to persevere on their interests or passion is indeed an admirable trait that shows one does not need to limit yourself and your endeavors to your chosen field of study.